Bearing arms

What do I make of the fact that, in 2018, the TSA confiscated 21 guns from passengers’ carry-on luggage at the Norfolk airport, an all-time record and more than double the number from the previous year?

Not much, since there are also a couple of other relative statistics to consider.

Secret teams from the Department of Homeland Security found that in 2017, the TSA failed 95 percent of the time to stop inspectors from smuggling weapons or explosive materials through screening. Let that 95 percent failure rate sink in for a minute. Perhaps the TSA learned how to detect firearms in 2018.

The number of passengers at the Norfolk airport in 2018 was 3,663,996. This means firearms were detected on 0.00058 percent of the passengers traveling through the airport in 2018.

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms and was adopted on Dec. 15, 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights, which also guarantees civil rights and liberties to the individual — like freedom of speech, press and religion.

Unfortunately, the right to keep and bear arms is never held on equal footing with the other rights and liberties in the Bill of Rights.

John Baker

Newport News

Cost of driving

A couple of "do good" state legislators and a U.S. District Court in Charlottesville are saying it's unfair to suspend someone's driver license if the culprit "… doesn't pay court fees and fines or make … some arrangement to do so."

I have to wonder how someone who cannot pay court fees and fines for a traffic violation can afford to drive at all?

If that person can't afford to pay for these expenses, how can they afford to pay for insurance and needed car repairs and where are they getting the money for gasoline to drive?

Bottom line: they need to be held as accountable as the rest of us for violating traffic laws.

If drivers can't afford the punitive costs of a traffic violation there is an easy solution — don't do it in the first place. The argument that it is "unfair and violates their rights of due process" is entirely bogus and begs the question: at what point do we actually make individuals accountable for what they do?

Jim Pauls

Hampton

High-tech wall

In medieval days of yore, walls built around towns were a sound, proven method of keeping an invading army at bay.

Nowadays, a wall built along our southern border couldn't even keep a single determined migrant from entering our country.

He/she could fly over it, or come by sea, or stroll through a tunnel under it (drug cartels are ever so obliging), or just cut through steel slats with a metal-cutting saw. Maybe we should use our heads here.

We now have a great deal of higher technology at our disposal. We have motion detectors, radar, cellphones, drones, satellites and more. These, combined with beefed-up border patrols, could be used to fashion an integrated system of deterrence. To create a wall which is not a physical wall, but a virtual one. Cheaper, more efficient, and environmentally sound to boot.

Not to mention that actually, the best "wall" of all is a veritable army of asylum judges. We need many more of them than we now have to keep up with the demand.

Stan Pearson

Newport News

Disasterous deal

President Donald Trump is trying to give Saudi Arabia the keys to nuclear weapon production.

If Trump is successful in his current "fast track" effort of transferring nuclear technology to the country whose residents were responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 aircraft bombs, then his supporters will be responsible for spreading more nuclear weapon materials into the volatile Middle East.

As anyone familiar with nuclear power knows, countries can convert nuke bomb materials from the nuke power plant fuel. It can be reprocessed into bombs like North Korea has stocked up on.

Why does Trump like the Saudis, North Korea and the Russians so much?

Whatever his reasons, I hope he gets a lot out of this because his actions may end up killing the rest of us if he continues unchecked.